MTV President Van Toffler is taking bows for the surprising success of Save the Last Dance at the box office during the past two weeks. (Including Monday's receipts, the film has now grossed $47 million.)

The movie, which MTV Films had produced with Viacom sibling Paramount, had been strongly promoted on the teen-skewing channel in advance of its theatrical debut. In an interview appearing in today's (Wednesday) New York Daily News, Toffler noted that the Dance's success came despite the fact that it featured no major stars. "I don't think that Hollywood was expecting this to happen," he said. "And you've got a lot of great movies out there with established stars like Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson, but nothing that gets to the hearts of teens and twentysomethings."

Source: Studio Briefing